Emergency services under pressure from nuisance calls

20th August 2012

Nuisance 999 callers have been putting emergency services in Wales under increased pressure during the summer months.

Ambulance bosses say calls have been from a woman bitten on the finger by a hamster, men requesting urgent medical attention because they had hangovers and one patient faking severe stomach cramps who jumped out of an ambulance on route to hospital and thanked paramedics for the lift. Wales’ acting chief medical officer Chris Jones said there were a "growing number of inappropriate emergency calls to the ambulance service".